NHS “under pressure from all sides” as waiting list reaches seven million

Medical leaders have warned that the NHS is facing pressures from every direction as official figures showed that the waiting list for planned hospital treatment in England reached seven million for the first time.

NHS statistics1 published on 13 October show there were 7 003 256 people waiting for treatment in August. There was progress on reducing the longest waits—2646 people waited more than two years for hospital treatment compared with an all time high of 23 778 in January 2022. But the total waiting list continues to rise because there are more people being referred than treated.

Tim Mitchell, vice president of …